Recently there has been increasing tendency in the consumer goods industries to make packaging out of recycled plastics, mainly for environmental reasons.
There are disadvantages to using plastic containers, bottles etc., with recycled plastics as a constituent material of the outside layer of a container. The main disadvantage is that the recycled plastic causes the outer surface of the container to be dark in colour due to the presence of impurities, including different polymers and pigments in the recycled plastic.
Previous solutions to this problem have included the co-extrusion of a multi-layered container so that the outer surface is made from a plastic layer containing no recycled plastic. This means that the coloured recycled plastic can be shielded from view by the outer layer of non-recycled plastic. However the co-extrusion technique is complicated and expensive. Furthermore, the proportion of recycled plastic that can be used in the container is limited.
Alternatively, a container made from recycled plastic, and including recycled plastic in its outer surface layer can be made to have a coloured appearance. Pigments are added to the plastic/recycled plastic to give it a consistent coloured appearance which is not dependent on the colour of the recycled plastic. However, there are limitations on the surface characteristics and colour that can be given to the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,187, dated Apr. 18, 1987, describes a means for attaching a label to a container using a viscous, tacky solution to attach the label and then wrap it around the bottle. The solution hardens and weakens so that later the label can be easily stripped from the container for recycling. However it would be more economical if there was no need to strip the label from the bottle before recycling.
WO 88/05752, published Aug. 11, 1988, describes a packaging wrap/label for enclosing and protecting various containers. The wrap is made of heat shrinkable plastic made at least in part of a styrene-butadiene block copolymer. This document does not deal with the problems of containers made at least in part from recycled plastic materials.
There is a need, however, to present a container to the consumer, made partly or wholly from recycled plastic which cannot be distinguished by function or appearance from a container made entirely from non-recycled plastic.
The purpose of this invention is to provide an economical and practical container made at least in part from recycled plastic and which is not limited by the surface properties of the recycled plastic in the outer layer. This has been achieved by substantially covering the outer surface of the container with a label which is opaque over most (or all) of its area.
Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a container and label that can easily be recycled again after use. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the label is made from plastic materials that means that it does not have to be removed from the container before recycling.